SXSW: Savages

Saturday, 3 p.m. @ SPIN House at Easy Tiger

At first, there is something comically off about seeing UK post-punk quartet Savages outdoors, mid-afternoon, with the sun shining down. They're a dark, tense as hell group, typically dressed in all black, and their aura is more suited to the confines of a closed, indoor space. More appropriate was how brutal and hellish that sun felt after standing under it for an hour.

After a bit of stretching, frontwoman Jehnny Beth and the group took the tiny stage for six songs. There was no intro, no banter, and little pause between material, which included "Give Me a Gun" and "City's Full" off their live EP as well as two others, titled "No Face" and "Shut Up". Despite the unlikely conditions, their assault was razor-sharp; piercing noise guitar, dubby bass, swinging drums. Beth menacingly punched and pointed outward throughout the set, which concluded with the one-two punch of the especially heavy "She Will" and skin-crawling debut single "Husbands".

As with their CMJ performance, it's the presence of groups from abroad like Savages, who have yet to fully tour the U.S. (though they play New York next week), that make the existence of fests like SXSW worthwhile.